Knit-Knights Founder Peggy O'Neill wearing a sweater she designed and knit with yarn made on her own spinning wheel, holds neonatal baby hats.
Photo by M. English/For The Times Herald

You won’t find Knit-Knight members knit-bombing or otherwise crafting in the streets.

But every Monday night, you will find them ensconced in the lower-level community room at Conshohocken Free Library, transforming miles of yarn into everything from gorgeous sweaters and exquisite baby garb to the special request items they donate to hospitals, non-profits and U.S. military personnel.

Knit-Knights was founded by Conshohocken’s Peggy O’Neill nearly eight years ago and has been going strong ever since.

The group meets every Monday from 6:30 to 8:30 and an impressive 300 members — ranging from one in her mid-90s to an occasional teen — are listed in its roll book.

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Nearly 90 are active, and 40-plus routinely show up for Knit-Knights’ weekly craft sessions. They come from all over, too. The Conshohocken-Plymouth-Whitemarsh area is well represented, but so is Roxborough, King of Prussia, Blue Bell, Pennlyn, Collegeville, Royersford and points even farther afield.

“We have one lady who used to live in Plymouth but moved to Upper Darby,” O’Neill says. “She works downtown, but on Mondays, she leaves her car at a different train station so that she can make it to Knit-Knights after work.”

On a recent Monday, Marian Ramirez of Conshohocken, Alberta Bertino of Plymouth and Cindi Reibstein of Philadelphia are among the group’s earliest arrivals. Frigid temperatures and black ice aside,

Sue Korenstein has driven to CFL from Radnor with an armful of cute doll clothes and baby toys, and Anne Marie Magness of Conshohocken showed has brought the beginnings of a white sweater.

Dutch native Evelyn Van de Stouwe, who moved to Conshohocken from England a few years ago, shows O’Neill the striking lavender and blue sweater she’s made for granddaughter Hannah and a heavyweight pullover for the toddler’s father.

The local women have plenty of company. Granted, it’s old news that knitting’s popularity has surged during the last decade or so. But fans continue to call it the new yoga and laud its power to relax and center.

O’Neill’s work is masterful and luxe. She’s been knitting and crocheting since childhood when she learned by observing her aunts. The Knit-Knights founder also belongs to the Philadelphia Guild of Handweavers in Manayunk.

Daughter Joan gave her a handsome hardwood spinning wheel a few years back, and she’s currently sporting a gorgeous sweater she designed — diagonal, top-down, seamless — and knit with self-spun yarn.

Happily, this is a generous group of crafters. If someone gets stuck on a pattern or wants to create her own version of someone else’s original, help is only a question away. Sessions called knit-alongs are held when the entire group is looking to learn something new.

“It’s not just the knitting,” she says. “Some people just come for the company…for the networking. We usually have food every week, too…cookies or something homemade. It’s almost like a party every week. I think, too, the fact that we meet every week makes it easier for people to get to know one another…easier to become friends. We learn from each other, too. You never know who’s going to walk in with what. We’re inspired by one another. By everyone. That’s how knit-alongs developed.”

Some Knit-Knighters are relative newcomers to the craft, and the group welcomes rank novices as well as would-be knitters who’ve never picked up a needle or unraveled a skein of yarn.

“We’re all at different levels, and everyone is welcome…no matter how much or how little they know,” O’Neill says. “In fact, if someone calls to get information about the group and hasn’t done any knitting or crocheting, I tell them, don’t go out and buy anything ‘til you see if you like it. We always have plenty of extra needles and yarn…”

Prospective Knit-Knighters are invited to visit the group at CFL, 301 Fayette St., any Monday from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

Additional information is available at www.knitknights.com or 610-825-1656.